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Certainly, we all struggle from time to time with the
evil in this world, all around us, even hitting home when we experience a taste
of it ourselves. The problem arises for
Christians when the questions arises, “How can there be so much evil in the
world if God is perfectly good as well as all powerful?” If God were perfectly good but not all
powerful, then we may understand that He wants to stop evil but is not able. On
the flip side, if God were all powerful but not all good, then we would realize
that he does not stop evil because He does not want to even though He
could. However, orthodox Christian
doctrine affirms, among many other things, that our God is both perfectly good
and all powerful. Since this is true, we
are left with our original question:

“How can there be so much evil
in the world if God is perfectly good as well as all powerful?”

While this seems like an insurmountable attack on the God
of the Bible, the Christian actually does have a reasonable response. To begin to understand the answer, we must
put aside our emotional feelings. This
is hard to do, but once our emotions are taken out of the equation, we will be
able to think clearly on the subject.

First of all, the genuine, consistent atheist must admit
that there is no such thing as objective moral values and duties. Following atheism to its logical end produces
a conclusion that there are no such things as good and evil. There is no objective basis on which to judge
these things. Nevertheless, almost
everyone knows that there IS such a thing as evil. Will anyone really deny that murder is
evil? Are there folks out there who will
disagree that child abuse is evil? Was
the Holocaust not evil? What about ISIS;
is burning people in cages not evil?
Most of the world’s population will acknowledge that these things are
evil and that evil exists. And yet, no
one can make these sorts of judgments without the existence of God. Follow this logic:

(1) If we believe that there is evil in the world, then
there must be good. If there is wrong, then there must be right and vice-versa.

(2) If good and evil exist, then objective moral values
and duties exist.

(3) If there are objective moral values and duties, then
there must be a universal, moral lawgiver.

(4) There is a universal lawgiver—God.

The theologians and Christian apologists call this line
of reasoning, “The Moral Argument for the Existence of God.” The Scriptures affirm that God exists and
that He has given us standards (Romans 1:18-21). He is holy, and, to have a relationship with
Him, we must be holy as well. The
Scriptures even go so far as to state that all human beings have this moral law
written on their hearts, even apart from the Bible (Romans 2:12-16).

Here is the argument in three simple points:

(1) If God does not exist, objective moral values and
duties do not exist.

(2) But objective moral values and duties do exist.

(3) Therefore, God exists.

Now, all we have done thus far is show that the question
of the problem of evil does not disprove God’s existence. We have shown that that evil actually proves
God’s existence. So, how are we to begin
to deal with the problem?

The first answer to the problem of evil is the fact of free-will. God has created human beings in His image and
likeness, and He has allowed us to freely choose to accept or reject Him. He has allowed us to choose good or
evil. We have all sinned and fallen
short of the glory of God, and some human beings have chosen to pursue evil
wholeheartedly. This is a horrible
situation in which we find ourselves, but the alternative was for God to create
us to simply be robots, programmed to only do good. The only remedy for this horrible situation
is not to deny God and pursue wickedness; on the contrary, our only hope is to
trust God and wait for the appearing of His Son who will rid the world of evil
and establish an everlasting kingdom of peace and all that is good.

Another response to the problem of evil is that God
surely has morally sufficient reasons for allowing pain and suffering to
continue in the world. You see, not only
is God perfectly good and all powerful, but He is also all knowing. He can see the end from the beginning. Before creation, He thought of all the
possible worlds that He could create, and He chose to create this one. For whatever reasons, He created a world with
free creatures which would allow for pain, suffering, and evil. Maybe that is the only kind of world there
can be when creatures have freedom of the will.
Maybe that is the world in which the most people would come to a
knowledge of the truth and to saving faith.
For whatever the reasons, even with the emotional turmoil that evil
brings, we do not waver from the belief in the integrity of God. He is perfectly righteous—therefore, everything
He thinks, says, and does is right.

There are many more things that can be said on this
extremely relevant and greatly important question, and we have only scratched
the surface. Maybe this article will
help a little bit to move you toward some answers to the problem, and perhaps
we can follow this up with some more articles.

St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated this week, so I thought I
would share a brief summary of his history. Many think of St. Patrick’s Day as
a day to wear green, celebrate Irish heritage, and have parties. However, there
is a rich story behind the holiday.

The man known as “Patrick of Ireland,” “Saint Patrick,”
and “Apostle of Ireland” was English by birth (living from late fourth century
into the middle of the fifth century) but was captured by pirates and sold into
slavery in Ireland when he was a teenager. After a handful of years, Patrick
escaped from his captors and went back to his home country. Patrick had been
raised by a Christian family and later studied for the ministry, rose to
leadership in the church, and even returned to Ireland to spread the Gospel of
Christ as a missionary (thus the word “apostle”). Just think, Patrick returned
to the people who had kidnapped, abused, and enslaved him. Can you imagine
returning to the place of your worst nightmare? I don’t know about you, but I
may have vowed to never enter Ireland again. And yet, Patrick went back to that
pagan society with the Gospel of peace.

I think Patrick’s story beautifully illustrates
Scriptures such as Ephesians 4:32, “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you,” and Colossians
3:12-13, “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender
mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another,
and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as
Christ forgave you, so you also must do.”

All of us who bear the holy name of Jesus Christ are to
be those who extend the forgiveness of Christ to others, even our enemies, just
as we have received the love and grace of Christ ourselves. This St. Patrick’s
Day think about the Gospel, evangelism at home and abroad, forgiveness, and
grace. Patrick has shown us what it means to “live a life worthy of the calling
we have received in Christ.” Now, let us do the same.